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The Game 161

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
30,991
20,172
UK
We had one for the iphone 5 and seen quite a few posts about people asking about battery life in the S4 thread. So use this thread to discuss how your battery is fiqures wise and tips e.t.c how to fix it.
 

skratch77

macrumors 65816
Mar 20, 2013
1,241
5
Here is what I did and I get about 6 hours screen on time and over a day total without connecting the charger.

on the drop down click the icons to disable sync and click power saving mode.

go into locations and disable all gps locating and wifi locating services.

In the email app go to settings and turn off push(set to never for peak etc)

Dont use facebook and use the broswer for it instead of the app or go into setting and turn off notifications.

use wifi when ever you can and turn off all the extra features like smart stay and all the other features the phone has.

go into display and set to standard color and shut off suto brightness and auto color adjust and manually set the scrern to the lowest you can that is able to see.

if you use ebay app go into settings and turn off notifications and do this for any app you have like instantgram etc also.

with these settings I get well over a day without needing to recharge and 6 hours on screen time and I have all the apps running with nothing forced to disabled.
 
Last edited:

strausd

macrumors 68030
Jul 11, 2008
2,998
1
Texas
Here is what I did and I get about 6 hours screen on time and over a day total without connecting the charger.

on the drop down click the icons to disable sync and click power saving mode.

go into locations and disable all gps locating and wifi locating services.

In the email app go to settings and turn off push(set to never for peak etc)

Dont use facebook and use the broswer for it instead of the app or go into setting and turn off notifications.

use wifi when ever you can and turn off all the extra features like smart stay and all the other features the phone has.

go into display and set to standard color and shut off suto brightness and auto color adjust and manually set the scrern to the lowest you can that is able to see.

if you use ebay app go into settings and turn off notifications and do this for any app you have like instantgram etc also.

with these settings I get well over a day without needing to recharge and 6 hours on screen time and I have all the apps running with nothing forced to disabled.

Recap: take out the smart in smartphone and get decent battery life.
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,878
10,987
Use the phone less = best way to save battery :p

My S4 has very good standby battery life, and I keep everything on with no power save mode.

I get around 5 hours on screen time on max brightness. For some reason browsing the web(on any browser) seems to take more juice that gaming or streaming a video.

My calls are usually only 15min or less, so I can't really speak on call time and battery.
 

Arni99

macrumors 6502a
Feb 26, 2011
551
268
Vienna, Austria
It's improving after 5-10 full charging-cycles but nevertheless it seems my iphone 5 had more power remaining at the end of the day.

Same usage on both phones:
S4:
7 a.m. 100%
5.p.m. 40%
9.p.m. dead
:D

iPhone 5:
7 a.m. 100%
5 p.m. 75%
9 p.m. 50%
 

zbarvian

macrumors 68010
Jul 23, 2011
2,004
2
Use the phone less = best way to save battery :p

My S4 has very good standby battery life, and I keep everything on with no power save mode.

I get around 5 hours on screen time on max brightness. For some reason browsing the web(on any browser) seems to take more juice that gaming or streaming a video.

My calls are usually only 15min or less, so I can't really speak on call time and battery.

I believe I read that AMOLED phone struggle with web browsing (in terms of battery) because of all the whites displayed.
 

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,738
6,109
Here is what I did and I get about 6 hours screen on time and over a day total without connecting the charger.

on the drop down click the icons to disable sync and click power saving mode.

go into locations and disable all gps locating and wifi locating services.

In the email app go to settings and turn off push(set to never for peak etc)

Dont use facebook and use the broswer for it instead of the app or go into setting and turn off notifications.

use wifi when ever you can and turn off all the extra features like smart stay and all the other features the phone has.

go into display and set to standard color and shut off suto brightness and auto color adjust and manually set the scrern to the lowest you can that is able to see.

if you use ebay app go into settings and turn off notifications and do this for any app you have like instantgram etc also.

with these settings I get well over a day without needing to recharge and 6 hours on screen time and I have all the apps running with nothing forced to disabled.

and you have a smartphone because...
 

daveathall

macrumors 68020
Aug 6, 2010
2,379
1,410
North Yorkshire
I dont do anything special, I have most features turned on except for power saving, I'm not a power user and have an on screen time of just over 2 hours which isnt bad considering I have 53% left and nearly 20 hours since last charge.

Screenshot_2013-05-29-14-11-35_zpsfb50820d.png
 

Dr McKay

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2010
3,531
262
Kirkland
Here is what I did and I get about 6 hours screen on time and over a day total without connecting the charger.

on the drop down click the icons to disable sync and click power saving mode.

go into locations and disable all gps locating and wifi locating services.

In the email app go to settings and turn off push(set to never for peak etc)

Dont use facebook and use the broswer for it instead of the app or go into setting and turn off notifications.

use wifi when ever you can and turn off all the extra features like smart stay and all the other features the phone has.

go into display and set to standard color and shut off suto brightness and auto color adjust and manually set the scrern to the lowest you can that is able to see.

if you use ebay app go into settings and turn off notifications and do this for any app you have like instantgram etc also.

with these settings I get well over a day without needing to recharge and 6 hours on screen time and I have all the apps running with nothing forced to disabled.

And what do you do with these 6 hours of screen time?
 

b166er

macrumors 68020
Apr 17, 2010
2,062
18
Philly
I'm not overly impressed with my battery life, but I can get almost a full day normally. I just have to keep a charger with me at work, and I have one for the mount in my car so that does it. On an average day I leave the house at 8am and when I get home around 9pm I have maybe 10% left. Admittedly I am using facebook, twitter, and email a lot. Location is usually off, most of the gloss is disabled.
 

durant35

macrumors member
May 2, 2013
74
0
I dont do anything special, I have most features turned on except for power saving, I'm not a power user and have an on screen time of just over 2 hours which isnt bad considering I have 53% left and nearly 20 hours since last charge.

Image

You aren't running on LTE though. I average 14-16 hours on a mix of wifi and LTE. Streaming music over Bluetooth, web, texts, emails, calls and words with friends.
 

The Game 161

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
30,991
20,172
UK
Days like today I get bad battery drain as signal at work is shocking so it's always searching for a connection.

screen time...1 hour, 30 minutes
12 hours battery total

31% left

when on mainly wifi i get a consistant 5-6 hours screen time and 1 day total.

no LTE here btw.
 

durant35

macrumors member
May 2, 2013
74
0
I've never had LTE and it's not available in my area so don't miss what I have never had. :)

I was just saying that anyone not running on LTE is going to see great battery life, so people in the US should be aware of that. LTE is just as fast as being on wifi, sometimes faster!
 

daveathall

macrumors 68020
Aug 6, 2010
2,379
1,410
North Yorkshire
I was just saying that anyone not running on LTE is going to see great battery life, so people in the US should be aware of that. LTE is just as fast as being on wifi, sometimes faster!

Yes, sorry if I came over as sharp, wasn't my intent. Seeing some of the speeds you get on LTE it would definitely be faster than the lowly speed I get on wifi in rural northern England. :)
 

The Game 161

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
30,991
20,172
UK
Only 2 hours screen time with 10* left.. Not great but alot of that is due to terrible signal
 
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